The 101 Best Fashion Quotes Of All Time

As serious as fashion can be, there’s no denying it’s also a form of entertainment, and sometimes that entertainment comes not with clothes, but with words spoken by people who’ve had an impact on the industry. Whether it’s Coco Chanel and her worldly wisdom, Marc Jacobs talking about his propensity for making “real” clothes, or Simon Doonan sounding off about, well, anything, the best fashion quotes are ones that say so much with a few short words.

4. “You can never take too much care over the choice of your shoes. Too many women think that they are unimportant, but the real proof of an elegant woman is what is on her feet.” — Christian Dior

5. “I loathe narcissism, but I approve of vanity.” — Diana Vreeland

6. “What I’ve done, Coco Chanel would never have done. She would have hated it.” — Karl Lagerfeld

7. “The customer is the final filter. What survives the whole process is what people wear. I’m not interested in making clothes that end up in some dusty museum.” — Marc Jacobs

8. “I think there is beauty in everything. What ‘normal’ people would perceive as ugly, I can usually see something of beauty in it.” — Alexander McQueen
9. “Shoes transform your body language and attitude. They lift you physically and emotionally.” — Christian Louboutin

10. “I like my money right where I can see it: hanging in my closet.” — Carrie Bradshaw

11. “I always feel that if you’re gonna be uncomfortable and unhappy in something, just because you think it’s in or it’s chic, I would advise you to be happy rather than well-dressed. It’s better to be happy.” — Iris Apfel

37. “I don’t want a politician who’s thinking about fashion for even one millisecond. It’s the same as medical professionals. The idea of a person in a Comme des Garcons humpback dress giving me a colonoscopy is just not groovy.” — Simon Doonan

38. “I think that because I’m overweight, [my] fantasy was lightness. So I project my fantasy to the clothes, and now all I do is light, light clothes because it’s the one thing I don’t have. That is why I’m too afraid to lose weight because then I might make heavy clothes.” — Alber Elbaz

39. “When you go to a nice restaurant, you want to be relaxed and have a drink and everything, you want to look at people who look well. You don’t want to look at some slob with an open shirt and a hairy chest. At least I don’t.” — Iris Apfel

41. “Fashion has to reflect who you are, what you feel at the moment, and where you’re going.” — Pharrell Williams

42. “You gotta have style. It helps you get down the stairs. It helps you get up in the morning. It’s a way of life. Without it, you’re nobody.” — Diana Vreeland

43. ”What you wear is such an expression of who you are. That’s like someone picking out who I’m going to date!” — Diane Kruger, on not working with a stylist

44. “In order to be irreplaceable, one must always be different.” — Coco Chanel

45. “I’m a very down-to-earth person, but it is my job to make that earth more pleasant.” — Karl Lagerfeld

46. “I wouldn’t take it as a compliment if someone looked at one of my shoes and said, ‘Oh, that looks like a comfortable shoe.’ There is a heel that is too high to walk in, certainly. But who cares? You don’t have to walk in high heels.” — Christian Louboutin

47. “I adore wearing gems, but not because they are mine. You can’t possess radiance, you can only admire it.” — Elizabeth Taylor

48. “Conformity is the only real fashion crime. To not dress like yourself and to sublimate your spirit to some kind of group identity is succumbing to fashion fascism.” — Simon Doonan